


Next Time

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Thieves, Crimes & Criminals, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 20:06:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3991066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>We can do better, Eren says. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>  <em>Bigger.</em></p><p> </p><p>  <em>Levi can't refuse.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Next Time

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Next time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4112209) by [es_nieselt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/es_nieselt/pseuds/es_nieselt)



> Edit!:  
> This has actually gotten quite a lot of attention compared to anything I've posted like, ever, so thank you to everyone who has read, kudos'd, bookmarked, commented, and, in this case, translated??  
> Now translated (what??) into Russian, thanks to [es_nieselt](http://archiveofourown.org/users/es_nieselt/pseuds/es_nieselt)!

Their first time, Levi is in charge. They stay in a too-big motel room, eating cheap meals, smoking expensive cigarettes, watching budget TV.

It's like a movie, Eren says.

No, it's not, says Levi. 

But he lets him have a try of his cigarette anyway.

* * *

Their second time is different.

Eren asks for a gun too, as they slip on masks in the dark. It's not like the first time, a question, this is the second time, it's a demand. 

Levi could never say no, so later, he says instead.

* * *

They're heaving and panting by the time they've made it far enough away and Levi feels like he's swallowed his heart, though he's not sure if it's from the adrenaline, or the way Eren grabs his hand as they ran.

Both are good.

* * *

Eren's third time isn't the same as the first or second.

When Eren slips on the mask this time, Levi sees a change.

He's just a kid, he has to remind himself as Eren is pressed against the car.

Levi can't wait any longer, and he lights a cigarette. This time, Eren asks for a drag, and he doesn't cough, this time.

Next time, Eren says.

Next time? Levi can only wonder.

* * *

Eren's hands don't shake anymore, when he holds the gun. 

He still can't bring himself to point it at anyone else, but they don't shake.

Levi wonders whether that's a good thing.

And there's that promise again, next time.

* * *

There's a trail of blood from the doorway to the bathroom.

Inside, Levi stabs with tooth floss and he's saying his mantra.

Brat, brat, stupid, shitty, brat, brat.

Eren just laughs at him, and Levi is reminded that Eren's still in there.

* * *

Levi has often heard that you can feel when you reach the turning point.

He didn't know what that meant, but then he met Eren.

What he wasn't told, is you can see it with others too.

And as Eren jerks on the mask, he can see the maniacal twinkle that wasn't there before.

And he has to wonder whether it's a good thing.

* * *

Eren is soon more dangerous than Levi.

When he puts on that mask, he's not the same.

Levi reads about it, a type of object transference, association with. 

When Eren puts on that mask, he's no longer Eren, he's Titan, Thief.

Levi witnesses it most after the twentieth time.

When Eren puts on that mask, he's not human.

* * *

Eren walks with a grace that Levi's never seen.

His eyes look hungry, like they could swallow Levi whole.

He's not scared of it, not until later.

No, now, he's exhilarated by it, thirsting for it.

* * *

His hands aren't shaking, Levi notices.

The gun isn't pointed at the ground though, but at the face of a mother.

Levi isn't worried.

* * *

He sees that they've stopped calling them The Titan and The Soldier after they hit the fifty mark.

Bonnie and Clyde seems more fitting anyway, and in the picture they use, they're holding hands.

He wishes he had a copy.

* * *

Eren doesn't seem to care about the news.

Just turn it off, he's saying.

But Levi is transfixed.

Don't you want to know? He asks, but he knows the answer anyway.

It doesn't matter.

* * *

They're sitting close on the couch.

Next time, that cryptic statement is back, but this time there's more.

We'll do it bigger, he's insisting.

And Levi never did know how to say no, so later, he says instead.

* * *

Levi can tell that Eren isn't satisfied anymore.

The high he got isn't enough, it's dulled, it's routine.

Levi thinks he can hear it in Eren's dreams.

The gunshots.

* * *

They stop being known as Bonnie and Clyde after the first camera incident.

When Eren connects the lips of their plastic masks together in a mock kiss, they start to be known as The Lovers.

* * *

They're becoming more famous. 

Levi realises this when they kiss for the first time.

Eren is Eren, the mask is off, but the hunger is still there.

Maybe, when he puts his own mask on, he'll understand that look.

But Eren's hands are skimming up his sides, and he doesn't mind that he's being eaten alive.

* * *

They start kissing in front of the CCTV.

It starts as a joke, but Levi likes it more and more.

He wonders if Eren is feeling anything inside at all.

* * *

Levi can hear Eren crying at night and he knows.

They're racing towards the end, hurtling towards the Earth.

He knows he should stop this, pull back, run away together, but he can't.

* * *

They're in a new store, new faces, new places, but Eren got it wrong.

He's bleeding and Levi can see him swaying.

There's a body behind the counter, and that's new.

They never went this far before.

He begins to ask that question, Are You Okay? when he sees.

Eren has the revolver in his mouth, there are tears on his neck.

Levi kisses him around the gun and murmurs, you're okay, you're okay, we're okay.

* * *

They hit a hundred too soon.

We should celebrate, Eren is saying, he's sitting in Levi's lap again, cat-like, lithe and lethal.

We should lie low, Levi counters.

I can do that, says Eren, and the chair is tipping back with the sound of sweet laughter.

* * *

Levi runs his hands over the rivulets of scars over Eren's bare torso.

And they're breathing like they'd run from a job.

Levi knows Eren is still there, inside.

* * *

He laughs, once.

At a hundred and fifty, Levi had never heard him laugh.

It's lilting and high, not like Eren's laugh.

* * *

Bigger, Eren is saying.

Now, not later, he's repeating.

Levi doesn't know how to say no, so yes, he breathes instead.

* * *

They'e running again, hard pants.

Their feet hit the pavement so hard, Levi thinks their bones will tear through their flesh into the tarmac.

Blue and red, harsh yellow.

They'd never been confronted by it before.

From the corner of his eye, Levi can see tears on Eren's neck, but his eyes are smiling.

* * *

We'll get through this, Eren sounds so sure.

We'll escape together.

They're holding hands, and the circle around them tightens.

They reach into the band of Eren's pants together.

For the second time, Levi kisses Eren around a gun, blood on their tongues and copper on their teeth.

* * *

Stay where you are, they're yelling, but they don't hear.

Together, Eren breathes.

Next time, Levi replies.

Levi tastes his lover's blood before his own, and the last thing he sees are those hungry eyes. 


End file.
